If you had a interview you felt was way too easy would you take the job

shodown

I just had a interview with a team for a very large voice installation 10K total phones, none deployed yet. The interview was very basic and they were looking for someone to come and help with the design and also add m$ lync to the setup. This interview was maybe the 1st 5 chapters of the new CCNA Voice book, when I felt it should have been more. I feel like Im walking into a trap. You never step into a great man's shoes, but you also don't' go into a room full of not so strong people either?????????

kurosaki00

yeah why not?
Ive had interviews where the people interviewing is not even IT related
they ask stuff like
do you know computers? do you know networks?
Im being serious here, really generic wtf questions.

cyberguypr

Well, did you ask questions? When I interviewed for my current employer I as surprised to see that the technical questions weren't too deep. As a result I inquired a lot about projects, responsibilities, expectations, etc. 1.5 years later I am extremely happy with the company and the team.

networker050184

I'd be cautious about it for sure. If they don't even know what kind of questions to ask it sounds like you aren't going to be going into a very good shop.

Akaricloud

I'd worry most about your peers. If that's the level of interview that you're required to pass, think of the level of knowledge your peers may lack.

I would honestly say try to meet more with the rest of the team, including manager before you go any further. Did them seem knowledgeable or did they not ask many questions because you know more than they do?

shodown

cyberguypr wrote: »

Well, did you ask questions? When I interviewed for my current employer I as surprised to see that the technical questions weren't too deep. As a result I inquired a lot about projects, responsibilities, expectations, etc. 1.5 years later I am extremely happy with the company and the team.

Yeah I grilled them on there environment, who does what, how are the jobs spilt up, to even who are the providers they choose to work with. They wanted to discuss it when I come in for a face to face.

I was telling my friends maybe its me, but when I interview I ask basic level of every certification you have. Then at your specific job we go in-depth. So if you have CCNP Voice, I will ask about the basics, but if you list on your current job that you have gatekeepers, H323, and advanced dial plan design expect me to go in depth so I can get a idea of what you really do at your job. I meet too many "senior" or "lead" voice engineers who when you find out what they lead or designed, it turns out more that a Cisco partner did the actual heavy lifting and they were just the Senior person on site, so a Senior Engineer at a cisco partner, vs a Senior Engineer at some enterprises there is a huge difference in skill level.

NetworkVeteran

If you had a interview you felt was way too easy would you take the job?

No. This is a red flag for me. A team that doesn't properly vet potential employees is poorly run. The exceptions might be if they already knew me, or the compensation was much better.

Edit:

They wanted to discuss it when I come in for a face to face.

Oh, so you've only actually done a phone screen?! In that case, I would probably wait to see what they ask you during the actual interview. It's not uncommon to do only cursory vetting on the phone, and save the big guns for those who merit and pursue in-person interviews.

shodown

Akaricloud wrote: »

I'd worry most about your peers. If that's the level of interview that you're required to pass, think of the level of knowledge your peers may lack.

I would honestly say try to meet more with the rest of the team, including manager before you go any further. Did them seem knowledgeable or did they not ask many questions because you know more than they do?

I don't know there skill level, as they weren't' the people being interviwew, but a funny thing happened. We were talking about capacity planning, and if you read the CCNP Voice thread I made a thread a few days about about me being burned by the previous engineer, and they asked the same question and it seemed to blow them away that I thought that far in advance about capacity planning, but its just because the past few weeks me and a co worker have had a feet to the fire regarding the same thing. But the questions were so basic they scared me.

skinsFan202

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

Edit:

Oh, so you've only actually done a phone screen?! In that case, I would probably wait to see what they ask you during the actual interview. It's not uncommon to do only cursory vetting on the phone, and save the big guns for those who merit and pursue in-person interviews.

Yea I've had this situation before with one partner. They had their HR recruiter who wasn't technical at all ask me some really basic CCNA-level questions from a list I could tell she was reading. This was the phone screening. I was surprised at how easy it was. But then once I got to the face-to-face they invited one of their CCIEs and another senior engineer and really started digging deep. I guess every company has their own methods of doing interviews

shodown

NetworkVeteran wrote: »

No. This is a red flag for me. A team that doesn't properly vet potential employees is poorly run. The exceptions might be if they already knew me, or the compensation was much better.

Edit:

Oh, so you've only actually done a phone screen?! In that case, I would probably wait to see what they ask you during the actual interview. It's not uncommon to do only cursory vetting on the phone, and save the big guns for those who merit and pursue in-person interviews.

They had a panel of 5 or 6 and they had nothing for me voice wise. I'm just unsure of what to think. I usually lay it on during phone screens so we don't' have to waste our time when they come in.

KenC

Sounds like the start of a multi-round interview process to me.